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Category: Climate & Environment

This category is climate change in relation to sustainability and CSR and how these segments effect one another. This includes how climate change has started to cause a wide range of physical effects with serious implications for investors and businesses, and how the business sector discloses climate risks and manage them.

A new study shows 100 top professional athletes’ endorsement of food and beverages and how many of them endorses unhealthy products. Why we should be worried about it and what can make athletes reconsider their participation in such campaigns?

The nearly 100 year old coop has always operated under principals that we might call a part of “sustainability” today, whether they’ve chosen to explicitly talk about it or not. I had a chance to talk to Cabot’s Director of Sustainability, Jed Davis about how the company thinks about sustainability and what they’re doing to advance it.

A company in California called Clean Energy Fuels is taking landfill methane and making it available for natural gas powered vehicles through a network of 35 filling stations across California. The new fuel will be called Redeem and according to the press release, it is 90% cleaner than diesel, and 100% renewable. The company’s goal is to produce 15 million gallons in its first year.

Mike Ward, President of IKEA USA gave the keynote address at the 6th Annual Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA) Conference in Orlando, earlier this week, where he unveiled IKEA’s sustainability strategy. I caught up with Ward a couple of days later, to discuss the new strategy in more detail.

Through the lens of sustainability, the savings in energy from this system are probably modest, but reducing costs while still maintaining jobs and a high level of personal customer service are laudable accomplishments.

On September 27, U.S. President Barack Obama met with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to discuss how to improve ties on a number of issues between the countries, including how to support efforts to phase-down the super greenhouse gases HFCs (hydrofluorocarbons).

Divestment from fossil fuels makes a strong political statement, but the markets are not always the right place to make such a bold case. In current economic times, however, portfolios can benefit from such a move while advancing the health of our environment.

At 100 MW and producing at half-planned capacity — enough to supply some 104,000 households — Abengoa secured financing to complete the Extremadura Solar Complex, good news for Spain’s beleaguered solar and renewable energy industry. Set to be the largest concentrating solar power facility in Europe, the CSP facility in Extremadura will help Spain avoid carbon emissions and meet EU renewable energy targets.

Eric Smith, CEO of Swiss Re Americas, discusses the risk associated with climate change, calling upon business to take a primary role in working with governments and communities to create more resiliency in the face of climate change risk.

Last Thursday, McDonald’s announced its plans to make significant changes in its menu and marketing, increasing “access to fruits and vegetables to help families make informed choices.” Why? In one word: Millennials.

At the NYC Climate Week Opening Ceremony, World Bank President Jim Yong Kim emphasized that action has been too small in responding to climate change and “what the world is looking for is a plan equal to the size of the challenge.”